Cusco Walking Tour

As unenthusiastic as I sometimes am about touristy activities, the free walking tour in Cusco was fantastic. I learned so much that I otherwise wouldn't have known about the city and I absolutely loved our tour guide. Favorite moments:

Tupac Amaru's memorial & learning about his heroic fight for freedom.

The churches charge people money to go in (unless it's before 6am or something) but our guide had a better idea. Since the churches already have plenty of money and the orphaned children in Cusco don't, we could go when it was free if we wanted and save that money to share with the kids on Christmas. His beautiful idea was inspired by the fact that he grew up orphaned and knew what it was like to have nothing (or get a random gift from a stranger) on Christmas. Heart melted.

"Qosco" means "center" in Quechua; it got its name because it was the center and capital of the entire Incan Kingdom. We also learned which walls and buildings were built by the Incans and which were destroyed and rebuilt by the Spaniards (which were a lot...Cusco looks extremely European to me). 

Our guide in the luthier's shop. This precious old man makes gorgeous instruments and he played some for us (talent for days!). He gives music lessons for free (although I'm sure donations are happily accepted) and, when asked why, says that he had no money growing up and people taught him out of the goodness of their hearts. He just wants to pay it forward. (Second time I almost cried  that day, if anyone's keeping count.)

These three men dress in traditional outfits and play traditional music. They sang and spoke in Quechua and talked to us a bit about their traditions.

A couple days after the walking tour, Andrea and I decided to hike to the top of the hill in Cusco, where the Saksayhuaman ruins and the giant Christ statue are. Our intention was to just go walk around up there and not pay the 70 soles each to get in to the ruins but a guy that we met on our way up was so insistent on us taking a horseback ride up the mountain that he lowered the price to 25 soles each (far less than half of the original price) which was also going to include our entrance to the ruins.

The countryside up above Cusco is even more peaceful than the city down below. The whole tour was a few hours and we stopped every once in a while to get off the horses and explore some of the ruins. We climbed through some tunnels that were used to carry water from place to place and where gold was kept hidden from the Spaniards when they invaded. We also walked into the tiny little Templo de la Luna, where sacrifices used to be made. At the end of the horse route, they dropped us off a short walking distance behind the Christ statue and then we walked through the Saksayhuaman ruins on our way back down the mountain to the center of Cusco (although we were a little too tired to really appreciate what we were looking at). Cusco is a unique place with its own special energy and it was nice to experience some of the history and more of the culture through the tours.